


Alexei's Last Clues Challenge

by mmcgui12_gmu_nancydrew (mmcgui12_gmu)



Series: mmcgui12_gmu_penpals [6]
Category: Nancy Drew (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, Not a Crossover, Post-Alibi in Ashes, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-23
Updated: 2020-11-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 17:49:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27690269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mmcgui12_gmu/pseuds/mmcgui12_gmu_nancydrew
Summary: A vaguely one-sided pen pal interaction between Alexei Markovic and Nancy Drew. Some minor spoilers for Alibi in Ashes. Loosely inspired by 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson.(Restarted from an old account.)
Series: mmcgui12_gmu_penpals [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1629067
Collections: Pen Pals Prompt Meme





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by [Hobbit4Lyfe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hobbit4Lyfe/pseuds/Hobbit4Lyfe) in the [Pen_Pals_Prompt_Meme](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Pen_Pals_Prompt_Meme) collection. 



> **Prompt:**
> 
> I just found out that Gene Thorkildsen, the voice actor for Alexei in ASH (as well as characters in other recent ND games) recently passed away from cancer. In his honor, I'm adding this prompt.
> 
> THE STORY  
> Alexei Markovic has just passed away, and the town of River Heights is in mourning. In his will, he left Nancy Drew a box of letters in numbered envelopes, to be opened in order, but only after each challenge is completed, in a 13 Little Blue Envelopes-type mystery.
> 
> THE SPECIAL CHALLENGE  
> To the person writing as Alexei: You can plan each "envelope"/letter out beforehand, or you can write each letter after the first one indirectly in response to what the person writing as Nancy has responded (but keeping up the envelope challenge going). Or you can do a combination of both. BUT EITHER WAY, KEEP IN MIND THAT YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE WRITING AS ALEXEI, WHO'S WRITING THESE JUST BEFORE HIS DEATH, meaning that you can't respond directly to quotes from the Nancy letters, as if they were having a real-time correspondence, but you can adapt any letters to fit how Nancy solved the puzzles, having Alexei "anticipate" Nancy's moves before he died.  
> To the person writing as Nancy (but Alexei should take this into account, too): Normally, for this prompt meme, it's supposed to be the writers taking turns writing letters/chapters, but for this specific prompt you, as Nancy, are allowed to write as few as one letter/chapter or as many letters/chapters as you need to in order for Nancy to properly describe how she finished each of Alexei's challenges.

Nobody saw it coming.  
After Nancy Drew and her friends had won the River Heights Clues Challenge five years earlier and cleared the name of her predecessor as River Heights’ kid detective, the man had gotten his life back together.  
Business at the Wardenclyffe Antiques shop had never been better. The Town Hall museum was a popular tourist attraction.

But then Alexei Markovic died. And nobody knew how sick he’d been until the very end.

The day after Alexei’s funeral, Nancy got a big, brown envelope in the mail, sent from Wardenclyffe Antiques.  
She opened it, confused. How could Alexei have sent this? she thought. She’d seen him in his casket just the day before, and the shop (as well as the Town Hall museum) were still closed until someone could take over for Alexei.

Inside the large envelope was a set of regular letter envelopes, all decorated and numbered. Nancy opened the smaller envelope labeled as the first one.


	2. Alexei's First Letter

Nancy,

I don’t know if I’m jumping the gun, sending this to you now, but I’m hoping this will get sent to you after my death.  
I’m sending you this set of letters as sort of a personal version of the Clues Challenge from a few years back. As I told you then, I trust you more than anyone else in town.  
Now, I’m going to be writing these as little letters because I’ve been reminded of what you told me of the ones you sometimes send to your friends before cases. Each one will be a clue or a puzzle for you.  
Keep in mind that you’ll only be allowed to open the next envelope after you finish the challenge in the current one. In the end, they’ll all tie together. But me telling you what it is now would defeat the fun in the mystery, wouldn’t it?  
Your first challenge is to go back down into the nuclear fallout tunnels below the town. Start from the entrance outside my shop. You’ll be searching the whole system for something I left you down there. It’ll be a big poster, designed by a mutual friend, based on my old childhood adventures. I’m not telling you what it looks like; you’ll know it when you see it.  
If you want to write letters in response and pretend I’m still alive and paying attention to how you discover what I’ve left you, that’ll be just fine.

Alexei

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone wants to join in as Nancy Drew, let me know in the comments for this chapter.


End file.
